A Haunted House
by JMaxi
Summary: "He was a haunted house, terrorized by the ghosts of his mistakes..." Three years have passed since Naru had to leave Japan again to complete his doctorate. Mai has become a skilled investigator in his absence but has been struggling with her growing powers. SPR's adventures continue with their most difficult and disturbing cases yet, including uncovering the mystery of Mai's past.
1. Okaeri, Naru

**Hello! This is my first Ghost Hunt fanfic, and my first fanfic about an anime/manga.**

 **This story will mainly draw from situations in the anime, but some events from the novels/manga will be referenced, such as Naru returning two months after bringing Gene back to England, Hirota Seigi's involvement in SPR, Mai's first exorcism, and etc. If you haven't read the novels/manga, don't worry. I'm going to try to have as much backstory about these parts as possible, and there will be a portion in the AN at the end to explain any Japanese vocab used and anything from the manga/novels that might not have been included in the anime.**

 **I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Taniyama Mai woke with a start, her eyes flying open and her throat instinctively tightening to prevent a scream from waking up her neighbor _. It's okay. It was just a dream, just another one of those dreams. It's okay,_ she repeated to herself as her hands lifted of their own accord and traveled her chest and abdomen to soothe the ache of phantom injuries and assure herself that they weren't real. Remembering Ayako's advice for whenever Mai was in a panic, she breathed in deeply through her nose for six seconds then exhaled through her mouth for the same amount of time, repeating four times.

When Mai's heart finally stopped racing, she sighed and buried her face in her pillow. Tears escaped her eyes and her shoulders shook as the horrors of her dream settled into her consciousness. The residual terror, betrayal, and deep sense of regret weighed heavily in her stomach, making it difficult for Mai to think of anything else.

After a couple of minutes, she took another set of deep, calming breaths until her tears stopped. The young woman then rolled onto her back and sighed. She didn't even bother to look at the clock, because she already knew that it was around 5 AM. It had been many, many months since she'd been able to sleep until a decent hour, since she'd been able to sleep without dreaming of a spirit's death or of whatever emotional or physical torment that occurred during their life which left them unable to move on. At least she'd gotten better at stifling her screams and tears so that she didn't also wake Madoka.

They'd been neighbors for almost a year now. Due to business picking up at Shibuya Psychic Research, or SPR, The British Society of Psychic Research, or BSPR, invested more money in their Japanese branch and bought the whole building that the SPR office was located in. It was decided that the lower level of the building would serve as SPR headquarters and that the second level would be constructed into apartments.

Madoka knew that Mai had been struggling financially since she'd enrolled in college, even after receiving a scholarship, so she offered the teenage girl one of the apartments. Mai initially refused because she didn't want to feel as if she were taking advantage of Madoka or SPR, but Madoka was even more stubborn than Mai. Mai eventually caved, but only after Madoka assured the young woman that living above the office would allow her to work as much as possible and after agreeing to let Mai pay rent, though Madoka wouldn't budge on the low price.

Mai grinned at the thought of the pink-haired woman. Madoka was relentlessly kind, and Mai had learned so much from her in the last couple of years. She was endlessly grateful for everything that her mentor had done for her, which was why she felt so guilty when her dreams had started occurring outside of cases. Her boss would hear Mai's screams then insist on staying up together until they had to go to work or until Mai had class. This left the both of them exhausted, until Mai finally managed to hide her nightmares better. Madoka thought that the dreams had stopped a long time ago. Mai felt guilty for lying to her boss and friend, but she was comforted by the fact that, at the very least, Madoka was able to get enough sleep.

Mai groaned softly as she pulled her sore body from the tangled sheets and climbed out of bed. She couldn't quite pinpoint when the pain from her dreams had started to linger after she'd woken up, but it seemed as if, every day, it remained a bit longer than the day before. She shuffled tiredly to the floor-length mirror that covered her closet door, lifted her shirt, and examined her torso for any marks or injuries, finding none.

Seeing that there was no physical evidence of her injuries helped her brain sync up with her body, which caused the pain to slowly subside until it was gone. Mai figure that because her brain believed she had actually endured the trauma in her dreams, the pain manifested itself while she was awake. So all she had to do was convince her brain that she wasn't actually hurt and the pain went away. She'd gotten the idea from one of her psychology classes, after learning that a similar process is sometimes used to help amputees overcome phantom limb sensations.

Once the pain faded, Mai went to the bathroom to complete her morning routine. She emerged a few minutes later, dressed in athletic leggings, a loose tank top, and running shoes. She grabbed her phone, earphones, and keys and then set off for her morning run.

This was a habit that she'd picked up when Naru and Lin were still in Japan, after Lin had started training her to control her powers. Lin's training regimen consisted of both physical and mental routines, and although their training had only lasted a couple of months, his lessons stuck with her through all this time. In fact, her control of her powers had grown exponentially under Lin's instruction, something that even Naru had noticed.

After Naru and Lin left, her control over her powers had stagnated, but she'd maintained the control that she'd gained from Lin's lessons so she was able to help out a lot on cases. In fact, Madoka had been sending Mai to investigate small, relatively easy cases on her own for the past year and had recently suggested that Mai start taking on more complicated cases.

At 20 years old, Mai was much more confident in her abilities and in herself now. After pouring her time and energy in her studies to ensure that she'd get a scholarship for college and maintain that scholarship, she was able to piece things together fairly quickly during investigations. She had grown and flourished in Naru's absence, though some things would never change, such as her quick temper, compassion, and propensity for running headfirst into danger.

At the thought of Naru, her quick steps against the pavement faltered before she regained her footing and her pace. Despite all of her efforts to forget the man and how she felt about him, she still thought of him often.

Two months after leaving for England to bring Gene, his deceased twin brother, home to be laid to rest, Naru and Lin returned to Japan. The handsome narcissist said that he'd returned because of the amount of paranormal activity in Japan, but Madoka always insisted it was something else, though she'd never told Mai what she suspected his reason was. The gleam in Madoka's eyes, so much like Yasuhara's when he was up to no good, made Mai reluctant to ask whenever the topic came up.

Naru had only been back in Japan for a year when he'd gotten a call from Cambridge University, demanding that the illustrious Oliver Davis, Naru's real name and identity which he hid while he was in Japan, return to continue his guest lecture series and his studies for his traditional doctorate degree.

Her boss had been unbearable for weeks while he tried to negotiate with the university and with his parents to stay in Japan. However, there was no escaping the contract that he'd signed for the guest lectures, and Cambridge had threatened to withdraw his acceptance into the doctoral program if he didn't return to his studies.

So he had left again, with Lin in tow. He hadn't closed SPR this time; he instead left Madoka in charge while he was gone. At first, Naru had visited every couple of weeks to check up on SPR, to which Mai would tease him for being a micromanager, but his visits slowly trickled to nothing as he grew busier and busier. After that, the only updates that Mai had gotten on his wellbeing were through Madoka and the rare visit from Gene, who had yet to move on for reasons still unknown.

Naru had been gone for three years now. She wondered if Naru had changed as much as she had and then giggled at the thought of the stubborn Oliver Davis ever changing much. She was sure that he'd given the university three years of pure hell after forcing him into a position where he couldn't make his own decisions.

Last she'd heard from Madoka, Naru was close to finishing his degree and he was focusing much of his attention on bullying the Cambridge administration into speeding up the process. Her giggle turned into quiet laughter at the thought of Naru throwing his version of a temper tantrum. From what Madoka had relayed to her, she was a little surprised that Cambridge hadn't frozen over from Naru's terrible mood. If her boss's emotional state was anything like it was when he'd left for Cambridge, she was sure that his PK would have been acting up, causing the temperature around him to drop.

Warm affection for the cold man swelled in her chest, but Mai was quick to stop her line of thinking. It had taken her some time to work out her feelings and decide that they were, in fact, directed towards Naru and not his dead twin. Once she had worked out her feelings, she'd had no idea how to convince Naru that her heart belonged to him, and to be truthful, she didn't think she could handle him rejecting her again. Then everything with Cambridge happened and he was gone before Mai could say much of anything.

While he was gone, Mai dated here and there, at the insistence of Yasuhara and her other friends, but she was never really into it. The guys that she was set up with just didn't interest her, so she had never gone on any second dates. She hadn't been able to admit it to anyone else, but she didn't have to. Everyone already knew that she still loved Naru.

Shaking herself from her thoughts, she found herself nearing the SPR building again, having finished her 5 kilometer loop. She checked the time and saw that it was only 6. _I could always finish the paperwork from the last case early, which would leave me more time to study and do homework_ , she thought to herself with a sigh.

With renewed determination to be productive, she jogged to the front door of SPR headquarters. Mai pressed a hand against the door to steady herself as she stretched her legs. The door creaked open and the young woman froze. She explicitly remembered locking up last night with Madoka before they climbed the stairs up to their apartments.

Mai quickly examined the locks and the door, observing that there were no signs of forced entry or of someone trying to pick the lock. Her mind raced, trying to remember if anyone had said that they'd be coming to the office very early that morning but came up empty. Mai removed her keys and phone from her pocket, clutching the pepper spray tightly in one hand and holding her phone in the other, one tap away from contacting emergency services.

She tiptoed into the lobby, listening intently for the sounds of criminals ransacking the offices for valuables but heard nothing. Mai tilted her head to the side curiously. Usually when she or anyone else was in danger, her instincts would be more insistent, nearly screaming at her to get away or get ready to fight, but instead, they were whispering quietly to her and gently steering her towards Naru's old office at the end of the hallway. The young woman relaxed slightly but kept her grip on her pepper spray.

She was just outside the office now and she could hear a low, quiet male voice from inside. Mai hesitated for a moment before flinging the door open, her hand with the pepper spray outstretched in front of her. It took a second for the sight before her to register. Two dark-haired men stood beside the desk, one of them at least 6 feet tall and the other reaching the taller man's shoulders.

Mai blinked owlishly as she realized that she knew these men. It took her an extra moment because she hadn't been expecting them at all, and it seemed as if they were taken aback by her presence as well, because no one said anything at first. Of course, the silence was much more likely to be attributed to the men's personalities rather than shock.

"Lin?" she finally asked quietly. "Naru?"

Naru remained silent and expressionless, though his intense dark blue eyes were trained on her. She noticed that he had gotten taller, his shoulders and chest had grown broader, and his jaw had sharpened. The muscles in his arms and legs seemed to gently strain the fabric of the clothes he wore in a way that they hadn't before. He looked like a man.

Lin looked the same as he did when they left, and Mai was impressed that he hadn't aged one bit. She chalked it up to his minimal facial expression. It probably prevented the formation of wrinkles, not that he was quite old enough to have wrinkles yet. Lin raised one of his eyebrows and cleared his throat, pointedly looking at the can of pepper spray still trained on them.

Mai shook her head while stuffing her keys back into her pocket, "Sorry, I thought you guys were criminals trying to burglarize the place or something."

"Really, Mai," Naru said, and his deep, smooth voice slid over her. "If Lin and I were actually seasoned robbers, it's possible that your pepper spray would have done no good. An idiot like you should really be more careful."

The insult lit a familiar fire inside of Mai, begging to be let out in the form of a sharp-tongued retort, but she was distracted. For one thing, she recognized that Naru's statement could be interpreted as mild concern and was flattered. For another thing, she hadn't realized how much she had missed her banter with Naru, how much she had missed _him_ in general. Against her will, small tears filled her eyes. They didn't fall, but it was a tough battle to keep them from doing so.

Suddenly, she needed to touch him, to make sure he was really there and not a figment of her imagination. Over the two years that they'd worked together, Mai was well aware that Naru didn't like to be touched. When she was younger, she had suspected that it was because he wanted to maintain a cold distance from everyone in his life. While she still had a feeling that played a small part in it, she had realized that his dislike for touch also stemmed from the desire to avoid triggering a psychometric vision.

But everything in her was screaming at her to touch him, so she settled for warning him with a rushed, "I'm going to hug you now!" before slamming into him, wrapping her arms around his middle, and holding onto him tightly.

She held onto him. He didn't hug her back- that wasn't his style, after all- but he let her hug him, which was more than she could have asked for. Feeling that he was solid and real and _here_ made Mai tighten her arms around the narcissistic young man and hold back more tears.

It seemed to suddenly occur to Naru that she'd been hugging him for a while, so he started to lean backwards out of her embrace. Mai giggled, shocked that he'd let her hug him for as long as he did before he got uncomfortable. She pulled away and beamed up at him. Naru simply raised an eyebrow at her, the rest of his expression blank. _Yeah, that's my Naru, alright_ , Mai thought to herself giddily.

Deciding to give the poor man some room after the close contact, she turned to her mentor. Mai wouldn't quite call her and Lin friends, but their lessons had brought them a little bit closer together. At the very least, Lin became more comfortable talking to her, even if he really only discussed her training and her powers. Still, she had missed the older man just as much as she'd missed Naru.

"Don't think that you can escape me, Lin," Mai sang and then moved to hug the older man, who patted her shoulder twice before moving away from her.

"Taniyama-san," Lin began. "Have you been keeping up with the routines I taught you?"

Mai sweat dropped. One thing about Lin that she didn't quite miss as much as some of his other traits was how intense Lin could be, especially during their training sessions. Flashes of their first couple of lessons- holding back tears, screaming at Lin to just _stop being so mean to her,_ and lots of sobbing- flitted through her mind. Lin and Mai eventually had to sit down and talk through what was going wrong. After their talk, Mai understood that he pushed her to help her reach her full potential, and Lin knew that he couldn't quite teach her the way he'd taught Naru and Gene.

She responded to her sensei about her habits and her powers, being careful not to mention her dreams occurring outside of cases.

* * *

Naru studied Mai while she and Lin discussed her powers and tried to reconcile the girl that he knew with the woman before him. Her hair had grown to her shoulders in soft, choppy waves. Her cheekbones seemed more angular, most likely due to the loss of whatever baby fat that had clung to her as a teenager. Also, she had grown more shapely, the curves of her hips and chest noticeable in her athletic wear.

Her appearance wasn't the only thing that had changed. There was a spark of grace in her movements and a quiet strength in the way that she held herself, things she'd definitely lacked in her adolescent years. Furthermore, Naru had earlier seen Mai start to tear up and had braced himself for the onslaught of her emotions. However, he was pleasantly surprised when she hadn't dissolved into tears. _Interesting_ , he thought to himself. _She seems to have gained some control over her emotional outbursts._

Some was the operative word in that sentence, evidenced by Mai's excited outburst when she threw her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest. He wasn't surprised. He had expected this reaction from her and suspected that it had taken a great amount of self-control to have waited that long to hug him.

He had appreciated the quick warning beforehand because it had allowed him to quickly steel his mental defenses. He appreciated her thoughtfulness since it prevented an unwanted psychometric vision, but a part of him wondered if it was because she had something to hide. The dark bags under Mai's eyes hadn't escaped his notice. He wondered why was having trouble sleeping.

"Does this mean you both are here indefinitely?" Mai questioned hopefully, catching Naru's attention.

"Yes," Naru replied and watched the joy fill the young woman.

"Mai?" a familiar female voice asked before the door to his office opened, revealing his pink-haired mentor.

She froze at the sight of her youngest investigator with the two people she had least been expecting to see. "Oliver? _Lin?_ "

Madoka squealed and then launched herself at the older man first and hugged him tightly. He wrapped his arms around her loosely. Some would interpret that as mild dislike for the other person, but Naru knew better.

The young narcissist suppressed a smirk. Those two were hopelessly, disgustingly in love with each other. They had been for almost as long as he'd known them. He felt a quick stab of guilt, knowing that they'd been separated for the better part of the past 5 years because of him.

Madoka then turned to Oliver, her eyes running over him. He stared impassively at her with his face blank. Respecting his aversion to touch, Madoka resisted the urge to hug him and instead put her fists on her hips.

"You, young man, have a lot of explaining to do!" his mentor admonished.

Naru simply rolled his eyes, "I finished my degree earlier than anticipated." He grumbled mentally, _And_ _I would have finished a lot sooner if those Cambridge idiots hadn't tried to stonewall me at every turn._

"But we didn't get to see you graduate!" the pink-haired woman protested.

"I have no interest in dressing in a ridiculous robe and cap, listening to rambling, inane speeches for two hours, then walking across a stage while shaking hands with people I don't care about, just to receive a piece of paper in front of thousands of strangers," Naru responded coldly, the corner of his lips curling in disgust.

Madoka huffed, and Mai interjected amusedly, "I'm surprised your mother didn't make you go through with it anyway."

"The only reason she let him get away with it was because she threw a graduation party for him at their home," Lin explained, amusement in his eyes.

Naru shot his guardian a quick glare.

"Ooh, you really let her do that, Oliver? How did that go? And how did you convince your mother to keep this a secret from me?" Madoka questioned excitedly.

"It was a surprise graduation party," Naru stated, his eyes narrowing in irritation in memory of coming home to dozens of strangers in his house.

Mai and Madoka froze, shared a look, and then burst into laughter.

"Oh, Luella is an evil genius!" Madoka giggled.

"Can you imagine Naru's face when walking into a _surprise_ _party_?!" Mai asked Madoka, and more laughter ensued.

Naru rolled his eyes, waiting for them to calm down. The torture that he'd endured at the party was anything but humorous.

They caught up for the next hour or so, with Naru and Lin mostly remaining quiet unless asked a direct question and Mai and Madoka explaining what had changed while they were gone. The two women called in the rest of the Irregulars once it was a decent hour, and within half an hour, the couches where they met with clients were filled with his old team. Naru sat in his favorite lounge chair and observed the others.

Ayako and Bou-san sat next to each other with their knees touching. Naru observed this quietly, remembering that Mai had said they'd started dating last year. He hoped that meant being around them would be bearable now, without them constantly fighting. Yasuhara sat uncomfortably close to Bou-san and teased the older man for leaving him for Ayako.

Masako sat next to Yasuhara at the end of the couch, one sleeve of her kimono covering her laughter at Yasuhara's antics. Over the year that he'd been in Japan after his first return, Masako's interest in him slowly faded. He was glad to see that her feelings for him hadn't returned, as she hadn't seemed overtly interested in his second indefinite stay.

Mai half-sat, half-leaned against the armrest of the long couch, somewhat in between Masako and Naru. She was laughing at Bou-san, who was now practically crawling into Ayako's lap to escape Yasuhara. John, Madoka, and Lin sat on the smaller couch, discussing several cases they'd had in the past. Naru wanted to listen to their conversation, but the others were being a little too loud.

A familiar tendril of annoyance shot through Naru as the office was filled with shouting and laughter, but he couldn't deny that it pleased him, just the tiniest bit, to see that nothing had really changed in his forced absence. So far, the only thing that was different was that Mai hadn't risen to the bait he'd laid for her earlier.

His eyes narrowed at the laughing girl and an arrogant smirk graced his face. Mai caught his gaze and looked at him in question. The familiar expression on his face, which usually would initiate a verbal sparring match between them, was something she hadn't seen in a long time. Something in her softened at the sight.

"*Okaeri, Naru," she told him quietly, a radiant smile on her face.

"Mai," he said simply, tonelessly, in response, despite the strange warmth in his chest at the sight of that smile. _Probably h_ _eartburn from something I ate earlier,_ he hypothesized.

"Yes?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Instead of blathering about, make yourself useful and make me some tea," he ordered, his smirk widening.

Mai glared at the young man but stomped off to the kitchen anyway, grumbling about stupid narcissists and tea addicts. Naru almost sighed at the sound. He turned his face toward a wall, so that no one could see the small smile he allowed to grace his face for a split second before letting it fall. Gene, sensing Naru's emotions, thought across their mental bond to his twin, encouraging him to say it, _*Tadaima_.

The smell of Mai's tea started to fill the air, causing the young narcissist to relax further. Naru didn't repeat his dead brother's sentiment, even mentally, but something in him echoed the feeling behind the phrase and filled him with- not quite happiness because that was too strong a word and Naru was, well, Naru- but with contentment.

Yes, he was quite content to be home.

* * *

 ***Vocab: _Okaeri_ \- Welcome back/home. _Tadaima_ \- I'm home.**

 **I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! There was a ton of backstory in this chapter, but that's because I had to set the stage. Please let me know if anything was confusing!**

 **The pace of this fic will be pretty fast, and updates will most likely be irregular. However, writing this story has been something I've wanted to do for a long time now, because it's so different from what I've written in the past, so I'm fairly determined to finish it. I hope you stick with me!**

 **Also, the picture that I used for this fic was found on pinterest. If anyone knows the original artist, please let me know so I can give them proper recognition!**

 **Please review! Let me know if anything was confusing or if you didn't understand anything! Thanks so much for reading!**

 **-J**


	2. Uncertainty

"Well, that's all for today. Read the next two chapters this weekend if you want to do well on the pop quiz that we'll be having on Tuesday!" Professor Akiyama announced to the room, causing groans to echo up and down the rows of desks. Mai sighed softly. Her favorite professor's quizzes were almost as difficult as her tests, but at least she was kind enough to give fair warning.

The young brunette quickly packed up her things and exited with the crowd. Once in the hallway, she stood on her tiptoes to search for Yasu above the sea of students rushing off to their next class. The two *Todai students shared meals and studied together often, a tradition they'd had since Mai started attending college. It began as a way for Mai to express her gratitude for all that Yasu had done for her.

As the main person who'd really pushed Mai to attend college, Yasu had been one of her biggest supporters in the last couple of years. He had guided her through the process of applying to universities and helped her find numerous scholarships that she qualified for, since her biggest concern was that she wouldn't be able to afford it. Plus, his encouragement hadn't ended there. When she'd first started college, there were many times when Mai felt that she couldn't handle the workload and stress. Yasu cheered her up and cheered her on, making her feel like she could do it. He had become her best friend.

For a very short time, Mai thought she might fall in love with Yasu, that he would be the one to help her finally get over Naru. They'd certainly spent enough time together for feelings to develop, but nothing happened. Her heart had remained in England, and Yasu only saw her as a younger sister, someone who needed guidance, encouragement, and protection.

"Mai-chaaan!" Yasu suddenly yelled from behind her then wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her up and twirling her around.

"Yasu!" Mai squealed, kicked her legs back and forth, and waved her arms in the air. "Put me down, damn it!"

He laughed and set her on her feet, giving her hair a quick ruffle before dancing out of the reach of her first. Not expecting there to be a man standing right behind Yasu, Mai didn't pull her punch quickly enough, which caused her fist to slam into the solid muscle of the stranger's shoulder.

"Owwww," Mai moaned, holding her aching fist to her chest.

She looked up through misty eyes because she was worried that she'd hurt the guy. A tall, muscular man with chestnut-colored hair, hazel eyes, and a concerned smile greeted her. She recognized him as one of her classmates, one who usually sat in the same row as her but a couple of desks ahead of her in the class that had just ended.

"Are you okay?" the man asked hesitantly, eyeing her hand.

"Ah, I'm so sorry!" Mai started to bow and apologize frantically. "I'm the one who punched you that hard, and you're asking me if I'm okay! I'm really sorry! Are you okay? Did it hurt a lot? I didn't expect you to be standing there! Please forgive me!"

"Mai-chan," Yasu said amusedly. "He's perfectly fine. I think you hurt yourself more than Ikeda-kun felt it."

"Is that right?" Mai asked, looking up at Ikeda-san in disbelief. "You didn't even feel it?"

The man in question rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Not really."

Mai sweat dropped, caught in between feeling guilty for punching a poor stranger and disappointment in her physical strength. "Well… I guess it's good that I'm so weak then," she chuckled.

"No, it was a strong punch!" Ikeda-san reassured her, waving his hands in front of his chest. "It's just that I used to wrestle in high school, so I'm used to being roughed up by guys three times your size."

Mai immediately perked up. "Ah, I see!"

She smiled sunnily at Ikeda-san, and he blinked at her slowly. Mai laughed nervously at his gawking at her as Yasu looked between the two, his glasses glinting mischievously. Mai nearly sighed. That was never a good sign; it usually meant that he was planning something she wouldn't like.

"Do you two know each other?" Yasu asked interestedly.

"We just had class together," Mai answered. "But I'm afraid we haven't actually met yet. I'm Taniyama Mai."

She extended her hand out to him. He shook it and stated, "I'm Ikeda Hideo. It's nice to meet you, Taniyama-san."

"Please call me Mai," she insisted.

He countered, "Only if you call me Hideo."

"So Hideo-san," Mai inquired with a smile. "How do you know Yasu?"

"I was his senpai in high school," Yasu replied, slinging his arm around Hideo's broad shoulders.

Mai nodded, "I see, so you were at the school when SPR was investigating the case related to the *orikirisama?"

Hideo-san affirmed, "Yeah, seeing you guys in action was pretty awesome. Do you still work there?"

"Yes," Mai responded then pointed between herself and Yasu. "Both of us still do, actually."

"That's cool," he grinned. "It sounds like exciting work."

"It definitely can be," Mai agreed.

Yasu glanced at his watch and then said theatrically, "Oh, Mai-chan, I completely forgot that I have to meet with my professor before class to discuss my paper!" Mai narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion. Yasu loved research, but he absolutely despised writing essays. He definitely would have complained to her about having a paper due soon, but she had heard nothing about it. _Very suspicious, indeed_ , she thought to herself.

"I'm afraid I can't have lunch with you," Yasu continued. "And it's starting to get a little close to your shift at work. Maybe you should just get something in *Dogenzaka, near the office?"

"Oh?" Hideo-san inquired. "SPR is located in Dogenzaka? I live near there. If you would like, maybe we could grab lunch together, since we're both headed that way anyway?"

Mai mentally sighed. She should have known that Yasu was trying to set her up with Hideo-san. She shot Yasu a quick, irritated glare to warn him that she would be talking to him about this later and that it wouldn't be pleasant. She really hated when he did this. It's not that Mai didn't think Hideo-san seemed like a good person, because he seemed very nice. It was more that Yasu had tried to set Mai up many times in the past, and none of them had worked out. Plus, Naru had just come back so she was even more preoccupied than usual.

Despite this, Hideo-san's enthusiasm was infectious, and Mai never minded making another friend. There was no rule in life that said having lunch with a man automatically equated to a date. After all, they had just met. She smiled and nodded, "Yeah, that sounds great, Hideo-san!"

Yasu smirked, clearly pleased with himself, then waved goodbye to the both of them, "See you guys later!" He quickly walked toward the end of the hallway and disappeared around a corner.

"Well, then, Mai-san," Hideo urged gently. "Shall we get going?"

"Yes, let's!" she smiled.

* * *

Naru smothered an irritated sigh as he leaned back in his chair, glancing at the clock and mentally calculating the amount of time before Mai was due to start her shift. He wanted her tea. No one else seemed to brew it quite strong enough without it being too bitter, and that was exactly what he needed to get through the rest of the day. The young narcissist had been in Japan for three days now. Jetlag combined with his typical insomnia had made him even more irritable than normal, causing him to lash out in his cold way about things that usually wouldn't be that big of a deal.

Today, the young man was frustrated with the new filing system. When he'd been in charge, the cases were filed according to the sequence that they had occurred, but Madoka had changed the organization without telling him. All he had wanted to do was catch up on the cases that SPR had conducted in his absence, but he disliked reading things out of order. He'd demanded that Madoka explain the new filing system, only for her to tell him to ask Mai to explain it to him before going back to pestering Lin.

Naru distantly heard the bell of the front door chime, signaling that someone had entered. He assumed that Madoka would go see if it was a potential client, so he ignored it and continued to rub the bridge of his nose.

 _You really need to lighten up, little brother,_ Gene thought to him.

Naru rolled his eyes and mentally replied, _You really need to move on, Gene. You've stuck around far longer than is safe._

The younger twin could almost feel his brother smirk through their bond when he shot back, _And you really need a new greeting. That's the first thing you say to me every time we speak._

Naru didn't dignify that with a retort, to which his older brother only responded with a light chuckle.

"Mai-chan?" the young man heard Madoka ask from outside his door. "Oh, who is this? A potential client?"

"Oh, no," Mai's answer floated to Naru. "This is Ikeda Hideo, a classmate from school. We're just going to have lunch in my office."

"Ah, well, it's nice to meet you, Ikeda-san," Madoka greeted. "I'm Mori Madoka."

"Pleased to meet you, Mori-san," an unfamiliar, deep male voice replied to Madoka.

Naru's irritation exploded. He had quickly grown tired of his employees treating his office as a café. It was ridiculous enough when Bou-san, Matsuzaki-san, and Mai sat around, talking to each other and wasting time, but bringing strangers to the office for a date was completely unacceptable. He stood from his chair and stalked to the door of his office.

The young narcissist wrenched the door open, his mouth already opening to spew a scathing comment, but stopped short when he saw Mai standing just in front of him with a fresh cup of tea in her hands. He eyed the tea for a moment before his eyes flashed back to Mai's face. She was looking at him with a wry smile on her face and one eyebrow raised.

"You were going to say something?" she questioned coyly, tilting her head to study him.

His features hardened further as he snapped, "I don't pay you to hide out in your office and mess around with your friends."

Irritation flashed through Mai's expression. "Well, then it's a good thing you're not paying me at the moment, seeing as my shift isn't due to start until 25 minutes from now," she retorted.

"I will not allow you to turn my business into a new hangout for you and your friends from school," came Naru's cool reply.

"If it's too much of a problem, I can just take my food home, Mai-san," Ikeda-san blurted from across the room. The poor boy's eyes kept bouncing from Mai to Naru, his eyes wide at their heated exchange. Mai and Naru were too preoccupied with glaring at each other to hear Ikeda.

Madoka chuckled and patted the boy's shoulder. "Don't worry, Ikeda-san! This is a pretty common occurrence. They'll work it out in a moment."

Mai's hold on the teacup and plate underneath it tightened, but she refrained from raising her voice. "It's just a twenty-minute lunch, Naru. My office door will be closed, and Hideo-san and I won't be loud, so we won't disturb your work. Hideo-san will leave a little bit before my shift starts, so I won't be wasting anyone's time." She shoved the teacup into his hands. "Now drink your tea before it gets cold. Honestly, I can't believe you're giving me all this trouble after I voluntarily brewed you a cup out of the kindness of my heart."

Interestingly enough, Naru was even more angered by the fact that Mai and this Ikeda Hideo would be alone in her office with the door closed, talking softly to each other. He reasoned that it was because he wouldn't be able to know for sure when the boy left the office and if Mai started her shift on time. Without replying to Mai to avoid yelling at the frustrating woman, not quite because Naru was overly concerned for her feelings but because he didn't want to deal with her anger and/or tears, he took the teacup, turned back into his office, and closed the door behind him with a resounding click, the narcissist's equivalent of slamming it.

"Well, then," he heard Mai chirp happily, her voice muffled through the closed door. "Let's eat, Hideo-san!"

* * *

Mai rested her cheek on her desk, fighting a yawn. Hideo had left five minutes before the start of her shift, many hours ago. They'd had a nice lunch and had gotten to know each other a little better. Mai still only wanted to be friends, and she made that very clear when Hideo asked if she'd wanted to go on a date sometime. Her new friend had been very gracious about her rejection and said that he was more than happy with that.

The young woman sighed, now thinking of Naru. He had been even quieter than usual after their disagreement earlier, not even bothering to ask for tea and instead settling for glaring at her every time she brought tea, as if it were her fault for not telepathically understanding that he wanted tea earlier than she'd brought it. Mai rolled her eyes then yawned again.

She was so, so tired. The sleep deprivation caught up to her often nowadays. She was usually able to stay awake by focusing on her work, but she'd finished everything that she had to do. Mai knew that she should ask Madoka or Naru if there was any other work that needed to be completed or even start studying for her quiz, since she'd decided to work until whenever they left. But it was getting late, seeing as it was already almost 9:30 at night. Surely, it wouldn't hurt to rest her eyes for just a couple of minutes.

 _Mai opened her eyes and found herself in the astral plane, surrounded by darkness and will-o-wisps floating upward around her. She was confused for a moment because it had been a long time since she'd been here. Usually, she jumped into her first-person dreams right away. In fact, the last time she'd been in the astral plane was when…_

" _Gene!" Mai called suddenly._

" _Hello again, Mai," Gene greeted warmly from beside her._

 _Mai wrapped her arms around him, feeling him return the hug tightly. She had never been able to get over how solid, how real Gene felt despite the fact that he was dead._

" _It's been a long time," she commented disapprovingly as she pulled away._

" _The longer you and Noll were apart, the more energy it took for me to locate you," Gene explained. "I thought it would be better to save my energy for when you really needed me on cases, but you've been doing pretty well on your own."_

 _Mai gasped, pretending to be offended, "So it has to take a dangerous case for you to want to see me?"_

 _Gene rolled his eyes, making him look a lot like Naru. "Oh, hush! Don't even start with that."_

 _She grinned, "I missed you, Gene."_

" _I missed you too," he replied, smiling softly._

 _His eyes suddenly widened and he yelled a warning, "Mai!" His hand shot out to catch her wrist, but narrowly missed, as she was suddenly wrenched backwards through the air._

" _Gene!" she shouted before losing sight of him._

 _Mai was enveloped in a bright white light, forcing her to close her eyes. The sensation of flying through the air faded as the light did. Mai opened her eyes and blinked rapidly to clear her vision from the spots left behind by the light._

 _When she could see again, she observed that she was in one of the bedrooms of a Western-styled home. The room was illuminated by a small nightlight in the far corner of the room. A twin bed was pressed against the right wall and decorated with teddy bears and a pink, princess comforter. Dolls and other toys littered the floor, while crayon drawings of a family of four adorned the walls._

 _Dread and terror slammed into her chest, a sharp contrast to the innocence and joy of childhood that the room conveyed. Mai was unsure if the feelings were hers or whoever's memory this was. Her fear grew and she started to breathe heavily, her pants visible in the icy air. The nightlight flickered a few times and then went out, leaving the moonlight spilling through the window as the only source of light in the room. Movement caught Mai's eye, and she shifted her attention to the twin bed. There was a big lump under the comforter that she hadn't noticed earlier. The lump whimpered and a small head peeked out from under the covers, a child._

Not a first-person dream, a third-person dream instead, _Mai thought to herself. Her heart ached for the little girl, wishing she could protect her. The girl let out a small cry as her eyes focused on something in the darkest corner of the ceiling. Mai followed the girl's eyes and discovered a deep black, roiling mass. It pulsed, and Mai felt its anger and hatred slide against her skin like a caress._

 _The entity's aura left her feeling dirty and disgusting, not just her body but her very_ soul _. Mai gagged at the feeling and recoiled, taking a step back and landing right on a stray Lego block. Pain shot through her foot, and she cried out. Mai froze. She had never felt physical pain in a third-person dream before. Mai looked up in confusion and found that the little girl was now looking right at her with hope in her eyes. The attention of the dark mass also moved from the trembling child to her frozen form, causing chills to run up her spine._

What the hell is going on? _she thought frantically. In the dreams that she had of spirits, she didn't exist; she was simply an observer of the past. In both her first-person and third-person dreams, nothing she did was supposed to impact the dream or manipulate the environment. Simply put, she was never meant to be an active participant in these kinds of dreams, so how could it be that stepping on the Lego hurt her foot and that both the spirit and the child were acting as if they could see her?_

Unless it's not a dream, _her instincts whispered to her, and then she understood. "Astral projection," she muttered to herself. After the Urado case, she'd been able to astral project at will a handful of times, but only with extensive and careful meditation before falling asleep. She had no idea how she'd been able to do it without intending to._

" _Such pretty, pretty girls," a disembodied voice rasped through her mind. The same anger and hatred pulsed against her skin again, but this time, there was an undercurrent of something even more terrifying and more menacing, something akin to hunger._

" _Please help," the little girl begged, tears falling from her eyes._

 _Mai suddenly snapped out of her stupor. She moved to stand between the entity and the child and held her hands out in front of her, forming one of the Nine Seals. She began to chant repeatedly, starting softly but with intensity and then growing in volume. "Nau maku san manda bazara dankan. Nau maku san manda bazara dankan. Nau maku san manda bazara dankan…"_

 _She could feel her *qi grow and swell within her. Years ago, Lin had taught her how to monitor her seven main chakras and visualize the energy flowing through them. After she'd honed the skill, she realized that her energy mounted within her when performing the warding magic Bou-san and Ayako taught her._

 _A whip of cold, dark energy snapped from the entity and socked her in the ribs, causing the wind to be knocked out of her. Mai winced but continued her chant. When she felt that she'd amassed enough energy, more than she'd ever used before, she began the Nine Cuts and instinctively infused each decisive slash of her fingers with her qi, "Rin Pyo To Sha Kai Jin Retsu Zai Zen!" After the last cut, the spirit roared in anger and then disappeared, taking its oppressive aura of darkness with it._

 _Small arms wrapped around Mai's thigh like a vise. "Thanks for saving me from the scary man, Onee-san!"_

 _Mai smiled at the girl. She had straight, dark auburn hair, big brown eyes, a button nose, and two missing front teeth, which did nothing to stop her from beaming up at the young woman. "You're very welcome!" Mai responded, patting her head. The little girl released her hold on her leg and then looked down, nervously fiddling with her fingers._

" _Onee-san," she asked, tears filling her eyes again. "What if he comes back?"_

 _There was a strong tugging sensation in Mai's head. She'd learned that the tugging meant that someone was trying to, probably somewhat violently, encourage her back to her body. She fought the sensation to stay with the child for just a few more moments._

 _Ignoring the pain in her ribs, Mai squatted down to be more level with the girl. She raised her arms and flexed to illustrate her answer, "He won't come back for a little bit because of how badly I beat him up!" However, Mai knew that the entity would be back. She could feel how intently he wanted to harm this child. Mai reached into her back pocket and took out one of the business cards that she always kept on her, just in case. Giving the card to the girl, the young investigator grew serious while she instructed, "But he will come back eventually. In the morning, give this to your parents and tell them it's very important that they come to see us right away. We can help you get rid of the bad man for good, okay?"_

" _Okay, I will!" the child chirped, nodding her head determinedly._

 _Mai grinned and then stood up, swaying as exhaustion suddenly crashed into her. She knew she was going to lose consciousness, but she didn't know what would happen if she wasn't in her body when she did. As she was falling to the floor, she willed herself back to her body, following the tugging in her head._

 _She heard a brief, concerned, "Onee-san!" before the sensation of flying overcame Mai. Then she felt nothing._

* * *

Naru had been researching a potential case in his office when Gene frantically thought to him, _Noll! Something happened to Mai. Get Lin and Madoka and hurry to her office. Now!_

The young man immediately followed Gene's instructions, rushing out of his office and urgently calling over his shoulder, "Lin! Madoka! Something's wrong with Mai."

 _What happened?_ the young man asked his older brother.

 _I'm not certain,_ Gene answered. _We were talking in the astral plane when she was suddenly yanked away from me. I couldn't get to her, as if something were blocking me, but I felt her fear._

Naru burst into Mai's office with Lin and Madoka right behind him, finding her slumped over her desk. Lin pushed past Naru to get to Mai's side then pressed his fingers to the pulse point in her neck.

"Her heart rate is accelerated," he murmured to the others.

Lin put his thumb and his forefinger to his mouth and whistled, a short piercing sound.

"My shiki say that she's astral projecting," Lin informed them after a moment.

"She did this on purpose?" Naru questioned, glancing at Madoka.

"She can astral project at will, but the preparation is extensive," his mentor answered. "It takes at least an hour of meditation for her to be in the right mental state to astral project on her own."

 _It wasn't on purpose_ , Gene communicated to Naru. _Mai looked much too surprised when she was yanked out of the plane._

"Is there anything that has the power to force someone to astral project?" the young narcissist inquired of Lin.

His guardian was quiet for a moment as he thought. "Not that I'm aware of," Lin finally replied. "Astral projection is the willful separation of the astral body, which is said to be the soul, from the physical body. Theoretically, it can't be forced by an outside entity."

All attention returned to Mai's body as her hands started to glow a soft, warm yellow.

"Is… is this-?" Lin asked, sounding as shocked as Naru had ever heard him.

The air began to tingle with the charge of static electricity, causing the hair at the back of Naru's neck to stand up. The young narcissist's PK started to react to the power in the air. Energy curled and grew in his core, so Naru tightened his control to squash the urge to poltergeist.

Mai's body suddenly bowed inward and breath rushed out of her, as if absorbing a blow to the stomach. A tiny whimper followed before her body relaxed again.

"She was hurt just now, wasn't she?" Madoka questioned worriedly.

"We need to get her spirit to return to her body," Naru ordered. "How have you done that in the past?"

"Just like you can't force her spirit away from her body, you can't really force it back in," Madoka explained quickly. "Mai has to will herself back to her body, so we found that we can encourage her back by talking to her or…" She hesitated.

"Or what?" Naru demanded.

Madoka reluctantly finished, "Her instincts kick in when she's in physical danger, which then urge her to come back."

"By physical danger, do you mean a hard slap?" Lin questioned.

"That could do it, but Mai has said that she can resist the desire to return, if she wants to," Madoka replied. "And if it was an outside force that made her project, I have no idea if either method would work."

Lin looked to Naru then asked, "Should we encourage her to return gently? Or do you condone hurting her to get her back more quickly?"

Naru's jaw clenched. "If something is harming her, we need to pull her back to safety," the young boss answered.

Lin nodded and pulled Mai into a sitting position in her chair, hesitating. Naru knew that there was no way to tell if she was still being attacked and that there was no research detailing how much damage a soul could take or what kind of lasting physical or mental effects it left on a person. For all they knew, she could be dying.

 _Dragging her stubborn ass back is the right call_ , Gene reassured Naru.

Naru knew this. Even still, he couldn't watch. He instead focused on the *picture of him and Gene that he'd given her all those years ago. It was displayed on one of the shelves on the left wall, at eye level for those sitting in the chairs at Mai's desk. A loud smack rang through the air, and he saw Madoka flinch from the corner of his eye. A small part of him reluctantly admitted that he would have done the same, if he'd been in any less control of himself.

Before Lin could slap her a second time, Naru commanded, "Stop."

Lin let his hand fall as he looked at his charge. Before Lin could ask what he was doing, Naru allowed a trickle of his PK to flow from his core to his hand, causing it to glow white. Electricity filled the air again as he prepared to shock her, not enough to hurt too badly but enough to sting. He figured that, at the very least, this wouldn't leave a mark.

Lin warned lowly, "Noll."

"I know what I'm doing," he shot back, sounding far more confident than he actually felt.

He walked to Mai's side and slowly moved his hand toward her pale, slender neck. Before their skin could make contact, Mai jolted in her seat and looked around wildly. Panicked brown eyes met his and she relaxed.

"Naru," she sighed before fainting.

Naru pulled his PK back into his core, his hand and the air returning to normal. Without saying anything to Lin and Madoka, he picked Mai up from the chair and carried her out of the office and up the stairs. Madoka rushed after them and used her spare key to open Mai's apartment. Naru found Mai's bedroom and gently placed her in bed, pulling away quickly as Lin and Madoka entered the room.

Lin whistled then waited a moment. "My shiki have confirmed that her spirit is in her body and will stay there for the time being. They say she's unconscious but unharmed. I'll leave one of them here with her, just in case."

Madoka nodded. "Good. Come on, let's leave her to rest."

Naru waited for Lin and Madoka to leave the room before he pulled a blanket over Mai's prone form. His hand shot out and gently brushed her hair away from her face. It was an unconscious gesture, something he had no idea he was going to do until it had already happened. He took a moment to monitor the rise and fall of her chest.

 _I'll wait in the astral plane, just in case she ends up there again_ , Gene thought to Naru.

Naru nodded then joined Lin and Madoka in the living room.

"What the hell was that downstairs, with Mai's glowing hands and the charged air?" Madoka asked the two men. "It looked and felt a lot like PK."

"PK doesn't just show up this late in life," Naru argued. "She'd have caused a poltergeist when she was younger, especially during the emotional turmoil of losing her dad and then her mom."

"Then what was it?" Madoka questioned again, looking from Lin to Naru.

"I have no idea," Lin answered quietly, rubbing his temples.

Naru's silence was his only admission that he, too, wasn't quite sure what they were dealing with.

* * *

 ***Vocab/background info:**

 ** _Todai_ : the abbreviation for the University of Tokyo**

 ** _Orikirisama_ : the summoning game played at Rokuryo High School in File 6, the case where we first meet Yasuhara**

 ** _Dogenzaka_ : an area in Shibuya, Tokyo; where SPR is located**

 ** _Qi_ : also spelled chi; the energy flow or life force within a person**

 ** _The picture of Naru and Gene_ : This didn't happen in the anime, just the manga and the novels. Naru gives Mai a picture of him and Gene before Naru and Lin leave Japan to bring Gene's body back to England.**

 **I'm so grateful to everyone who has followed, favorited, and reviewed this story! I really hope you guys are liking it so far. Thank you so much for reading :)**

 **-J**


	3. Sleeping Beauty

**Hello everyone! So this chapter is mostly filler as we are gearing up for our first case. This might be the longest chapter we'll see for a while. School starts next week, so new chapters will most likely be shorter and updates will probably be less frequent.**

 **I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Naru's eyes ached. He'd only been able to nap on Mai's couch for two hours before his restless mind woke him up. Since then, he had been alternating between scrolling through countless websites on his laptop and flipping through books, first researching any entities that might be able to force someone to astral project and then switching topics to psychic powers that develop in early adulthood. Both searches had been fruitless so far.

Once again, his gaze wandered to Mai's closed bedroom door. She hadn't woken up yet. Madoka said that this was unusual, but Naru had a hard time believing that the girl he'd known to be perpetually late might actually have mastered the skill of waking up early. Additionally, the unexpected astral projection combined with whatever power Mai demonstrated last night probably used a lot of energy, causing her to be fatigued. Therefore, he believed that there was no reason to be overly concerned at the present time.

And yet the tiniest, utterly traitorous, part of him ignored this logical conclusion and continued to worry. There was still so much about her powers and this situation that they didn't know, which placed her and possibly those close to her in great danger. Naru exhaled a little harder than usual, his equivalent of a huff of frustration. He truly hated not knowing. Not for the first time, the young narcissist considered going down to Mai's desk and performing *psychometry on it. The only thing that discouraged him from doing so was Lin's parting warning from last night. The older man had advised, "Whatever happened to Mai last night potentially triggered the development of a new psychic power for her. Experiencing it for yourself might trigger your PK, Oliver. Don't do anything reckless." His guardian had then left to sleep, most likely in Madoka's apartment. They had been trying to be discreet, but very little escaped the young man's notice.

Naru sighed silently and checked the time again. He decided that he would be more productive downstairs in the office, so he quietly left Mai's apartment. He trusted that Lin's shiki would alert Lin if anything happened to Mai and that Lin would in turn notify Naru right away.

Naru unlocked SPR headquarters then passed by his inbox to grab all the paperwork he needed to complete or sign off on. He settled into his office and started flipping through the stack of papers to prioritize which needed to be done first, stopping abruptly when he came upon a stapled packet titled, "The Narcissist's Guide to the New and Improved Filing System: A Necessary Change Because Literally No One Else in the Office Could Remember All Cases in Chronological Order So No One Could Find a Damn Thing (Which Isn't a Sign of Inferiority; You're Just a Freak of Nature)." The young man quirked an eyebrow, immediately recognizing that this was Mai's doing. No one else would dare to be so blatantly insolent.

He pulled the packet from the stack and began to read over it. Naru's face remained impassive despite the occasional spark of amusement that he felt at Mai's ability to maintain her sarcastic and teasing tone, even in a typed up document. Quickly moving past Mai's witticisms and thinly-veiled insults, he learned that she'd developed the filing system. It wasn't overly complex, consisting of the cases grouped by year then alphabetized by last name of the client who had hired SPR. However, knowing Naru's habit of reading things in order, she labeled each case file with an English number according to chronological sequence. Mai had also created an extensive, alphabetized index that referenced numerous details, including injuries that occurred during cases, location, whose powers/skills were used, and etc. and matched those details to the case or cases that applied.

Not that he would ever tell anybody, especially Mai, but Naru was slightly impressed with all the work that Mai had put into the filing system. He grudgingly admitted that, at the very least, the index made files easier to find when there were specific details in mind. The young narcissist looked through the index again and found the section related to Mai's powers _. It's possible that there might be some indication of the development of her mystery power in the records_ , he thought to himself. He took the index to the filing cabinet and gathered the first couple of relevant files.

Four hours passed, and the young man only managed to read through a quarter of the case files mentioned under Mai's category in the index. It would have been more efficient to list the cases that Mai's powers _weren't_ involved in. He hadn't realized just how much SPR relied on Mai's dreams and instincts.

The bell on the front door chimed. Naru assumed it was Yasuhara coming in early for his shift, until a hesitant female voice said, "Honey, I don't think anyone is here."

"But Mom, Onee-san said she would be here and that she'd help us get rid of the evil man for good! We just have to find her," a young girl protested. She started calling out while knocking on and trying to open different office doors, "Onee-san? Onee-san!"

Naru's expression hardened with annoyance. Lin was upstairs monitoring Mai's condition, and Madoka had only come down to get her papers before returning to Mai's apartment to do her work there. Seeing as he was the only one in SPR headquarters and no one else had come in, whoever the child was looking for was definitely not here. He stood from his chair and opened his door to tell the pair of strangers that, but a small blur pushed past the young man and started searching his office.

"Kimi-chan, don't be so impolite!" a middle-aged woman admonished, sounding and looking flustered. She had light brown hair, hazel eyes, and thin lips; her clothes were winkled and her hair rumpled. The expression on her face combined with her slumped posture exuded an air that could only be described as haggard. She turned to Naru and bowed. "I'm so sorry. Please forgive my daughter."

The mother straightened from her bow and ran her hand through her hair nervously. She explained, "This morning, my daughter insisted that we come here right away, telling my husband and me this unbelievable story about a girl who saved her from a 'monster' in her room and then disappeared after getting hurt last night. I thought she'd just picked this business card up from somewhere and had a nightmare because she'd been thinking about it, but-"

"Mama! This is her! This is Onee-san!" the little girl interrupted while gesturing to one of the pictures that Madoka had placed on his desk. It was one of the entire SPR team from years ago, before they'd learned who he really was. Naru looked more closely at the photo and saw that the child was pointing right at Mai, which effectively piqued his interest.

"How exactly do you know Mai?" the young man questioned the girl.

"Onee-san saved me from the bad man last night! How do _you_ know her?" she countered, placing her fists on her hips.

"She works for me," Naru retorted.

The child suddenly turned serious and sad, her wide eyes glistening as they filled with tears. "Is Onee-san okay? She got hurt last night and then she vanished. You have to check on her, Onii-sama! You have to make sure she's okay!"

"Mai is fine," he answered, looking at the emotional child with distaste. Lin's shiki had said that Mai wasn't harmed, so the girl was worrying about nothing. "She's just sleeping."

"Then can I see her? I need to see that she's okay!" she demanded.

Naru declared flatly, "You can see her whenever she wakes up." He looked at the girl's mother, who still seemed shocked that her daughter's story had been validated by her identifying Mai. The young boss continued, "First, I need you and your daughter to tell me everything that led to you two coming here today."

The child tugged on his pant leg and pouted up at him, "But I want to see for myself that she's okay!"

Naru narrowed his eyes at her, growing annoyed with her whining and trying to intimidate her into doing as he said, but she didn't even flinch.

"I want to see Onee-san!" she demanded then started screaming, "Onee-san! Onee-san!"

"Kimi, stop that!" her mother scolded. She glanced to Naru, "I'm so sorry! I swear, this is the first time she's ever acted like this." Naru found that hard to believe. Parents were so often blinded by love that they rarely saw their children for the demons that they often acted like.

Kimi continued to scream, and her mom kept yelling over her, trying to get her to stop. Naru's irritation mounted quickly, to the point where he was about to kick both of these nuisances out of his business. The only thing holding him back was that the girl had information about what happened to Mai. So he stood there, waiting for the child to tire of her tantrum and for the woman to realize that her shouting was only worsening the problem. He considered escaping into the lobby while the mother and daughter worked through their yelling match.

"What the hell is going on here?" Madoka asked as she breezed into the room, presumably because she'd heard the screaming all the way from Mai's apartment.

"I want to see Onee-san!" the little girl sobbed. Madoka looked to Naru for an explanation.

"Mai astral projected to the child last night and fended off a spirit. That's all I've been able to gather so far because she won't stop shouting," Naru explained tonelessly.

Madoka rolled her eyes at him then knelt before the distressed girl.

"Hello," she said with a big smile. "My name is Madoka. Why is a pretty girl like you so sad?"

The child's crying quieted a little as she replied, "I said it already. I want to see Onee-san."

Madoka clarified, pointing to the photo on the shelf next to the child, "Do you mean Mai, this girl in the picture?"

The girl nodded. "Oh, then we can take you right up to see her! She lives just upstairs!" Madoka grinned.

Kimi wiped her face on her sleeve and sniffled. "Really?"

"Yes, really!" Madoka assured her. "I'll tell you what. Kazuya-san will take you up to see Mai while your mom and I have some tea and talk a little bit. Does that sound okay to you and your mom?"

"Yeah!" the girl nodded and glanced at her mom, who looked completely overwhelmed. The worn out woman gave a shaky nod.

"Let's go, Onii-sama!" the child requested.

Naru looked at Madoka sharply, disliking the fact that she assigned him something to do without consulting him. She simply smiled calmly at him with a steel in her eyes that told him he wouldn't be getting out of it. Madoka then gently led the potential client to the kitchen to fix tea, speaking quietly to her.

The young man glanced at the child, who was looking up at him expectantly. He sighed then gestured for her to follow him before walking up to Mai's apartment. As Naru opened the door, the girl began, "I'm Kimi. What's your name, Onii-sama?"

"Shibuya Kazuya," Naru answered. They walked into Mai's apartment, passing by Lin who was seated at the small dining table. He looked up from his laptop to eye the pair curiously, but Naru was too annoyed to explain.

Naru steered them towards Mai's room. Lin announced, "She still hasn't woken up yet." The young man nodded and opened her door anyway. Kimi ran right up to the bed, examining Mai closely. She poked the sleeping woman's face and received no reaction.

Kimi burst into tears again and blubbered, "It's my fault that Onee-san is hurt!"

The girl surprised him by rushing to him and throwing her arms around his leg, still bawling. The pull of his psychometry nagged at him, but he tamped down the urge. Naru looked down at the child in annoyance. The young narcissist was in no way skilled at comforting people, much less children who required a more delicate approach. He looked at the open door with the hope that Lin would hear the commotion and investigate, but no help came. _Coward_ , Naru thought, glaring at the hallway as if his guardian were standing there.

He sighed then finally uttered, "I told you earlier, she isn't hurt."

"Then why won't she wake up?" she challenged.

He explained, "From what I've been able to gather so far but is unconfirmed as of yet, Mai used a lot of energy to get rid of the spirit last night, so she needs to sleep more than usual to regain the energy that she lost."

Kimi questioned softly, "So it is my fault?"

Naru paused as, unbidden, the memory of the aftermath of one of his worst poltergeists came to mind. When he and Gene were still at the *orphanage, before the other kids had learned not to make Naru angry, some of the older boys had overheard a couple say that they didn't want the twins, which the bullies used as ammunition to tease the brothers until Gene cried. Naru had become furious, a secondary reaction to being deeply hurt by the cruelty of others, the rejection of another couple, and his twin's heartache. His PK had lashed out, causing random objects to levitate and swirl around the room, and nothing Gene said calmed him. Unintentionally, a lamp had flown into the back of a boy's head, knocking him unconscious. Naru had been so shocked that the poltergeist cut off abruptly. The guilt that had consumed him afterward was indescribable. It had only lessened, albeit infinitesimally, once he was able to see for himself that the boy wasn't badly injured.

Naru blinked the memory away then looked down at Kimi. He understood her earlier desperation, which had manifested as a tantrum, and her current guilt a little better now, though this child's situation was radically different than his had been. After all, that incident had entirely been his fault, whereas there was no reason for Kimi to feel like she played any part in what happened last night. He sighed and then hesitantly, gently, patted her head twice. "No," he finally answered softly. "It wasn't your fault."

Kimi's posture relaxed as she released her hold on the young man. Both were quiet for a moment. "Hey, Onii-sama," the child blurted. "Maybe the bad man put her under a sleeping spell! You have to kiss her so she'll wake up, like in Sleeping Beauty!"

Naru's cheeks filled with the slightest bit of warmth, which thankfully went unnoticed as Kimi's attention was still trained on Mai. He scoffed, though his voice lacked its usual bite, which he blamed on being caught off guard by this child basically telling him to assault his sleeping employee, "I didn't think idiots could be princesses."

The girl scolded, "That's a mean thing to say, Onii-sama! Onee-san is smart because she was able to scare the bad man away, and she gave me the card so that we'd know to come here to get rid of him forever."

Naru smirked, "Well, she certainly isn't as stupid as she used to be, but that doesn't mean that she isn't still stupid."

"That's not any nicer than what you said before, silly," Kimi admonished.

"Wow, Naru, that was so close to being a compliment," Mai commented, her voice heavy and cracking with sleep as she blinked against the afternoon light streaming through her window. "I'm almost touched."

* * *

Voices slowly pulled Mai from her first dreamless, restful sleep in almost a year. She resisted at first, wanting to sleep more, but her whole body ached, especially her head and her side. Excluding the pain in her ribs, it felt oddly like she was hungover even though she knew that she hadn't had anything to drink last night. She recalled that she'd somehow astral projected and fought off a spirit that was trying to harm a little girl, but all the other details were still fuzzy.

Naru's backhanded compliment to her intelligence and a child's voice scolding him for it finally motivated her enough to open her eyes and respond, though her dry mouth and heavy tongue made it more difficult than it should have been. "Wow, Naru," she croaked. "That was so close to being a compliment, I'm almost touched."

The young woman shifted in her bed, wondering how she'd gotten there and figuring that someone in the office must have found her asleep at her desk and moved her upstairs. She scrunched her nose in distaste when she saw that she was still in her clothes from yesterday. Her face suddenly flamed when she realized that meant either Naru or Lin had taken her back to her apartment. Madoka would have changed her into pajamas, as she'd done many times before when Mai had passed out on cases.

"Onee-san!" the little girl exclaimed before a tiny body leapt onto the bed next to her, narrowly missing the ache in Mai's ribs.

Mai studied the kid, recognizing the big brown eyes and gummy smile. "You came!" the young woman rejoiced.

"I'm glad you're okay!" the child cried out.

Mai giggled, "I could say the same for you! I'm Mai, by the way."

"I'm Kimi," the girl grinned and threw her arms around Mai's neck in a tight hug.

Mai laughed and returned the squeeze, delighted by Kimi's enthusiasm. Naru cleared his throat then commanded, "Now that Mai has finally chosen to wake up, it's time to discuss what happened last night."

Mai huffed and pulled away from the cute child in her lap. "Can I at least change and brush my teeth first?" she complained.

Naru allowed, "If you must, but be quick. If you aren't finished in 5 minutes, I'm going to have Lin come in there and drag you downstairs, no matter what state of dress or lack thereof you're in."

Kimi giggled as he swiftly exited the room. Mai blushed bright red, quickly gathering a new outfit and rushing to the bathroom. She brushed her teeth and washed her face. Wishing she could take a shower but not wanting to call her boss's bluff, she lifted yesterday's shirt up and over her head which caused the ache in her side to sharpen. A dark purple mark on the right side of her rib cage caught her eye. Standing stark against her pale skin, it was about the size of a large man's fist. She gently prodded the uneven edges of the bruise with her fingers, wincing and remembering the strange energy that had caused it.

"One more minute, Mai," Naru warned from outside of the bathroom door.

Mai cried a loud, "Eeep!" She hurriedly pulled off the rest of her clothes then redressed as quickly as she could while splinting her side. After entering the living room, she shot Naru a hard glare, to which he only smirked in response.

Mai had only taken two steps toward the dining table before Kimi latched onto the young woman's hand. Mai smiled down at the child and swung their intertwined hands between them, making the little girl giggle. The young woman looked up and found Lin and Naru observing them. Lin murmured something to Naru, who then quickly looked away from the girls while snapping quietly at the older man. She tilted her head curiously and wondered what Lin said to have made Naru react that way.

"So when are Onii-sama and Onee-san going to get married?" Kimi asked innocently.

Mai spluttered, then pointed to her boss, "You mean Naru and me?"

Kimi nodded, "Well, duh!"

Mai chuckled awkwardly, glancing up at the young man who was looking at the folder in his hands a little too intently. Mai replied, "Kimi-chan, Naru and I aren't a couple."

The little girl just grinned widely, "Maybe not yet, but soon!" Kimi leaned in and whispered to Mai, "So hang in there, Onee-san! Onii-sama just seems very stubborn."

Mai sweat dropped, wondering if she was so obvious that a girl no older than 8 could clearly spot her feelings.

"So, Kimi-chan," Mai changed the subject. "Let's go downstairs to the office to talk about what happened last night. Is your mom or dad here with you?"

Kimi nodded, "Mama is downstairs with the other nice lady!" Mai figured that she meant Madoka.

Naru closed the file he'd been reading and then went to open the apartment door. He held it open for the girls, which made Kimi blush. Before they'd passed the threshold, Kimi reached out and held tightly onto the sleeve of Naru's suit. She tugged, urging him to follow her and Mai. Mai narrowed her eyes at Naru, trying to intimidate him into playing along for the minute that it would take them to get to the office.

Naru rolled his eyes but let Kimi maintain her hold on him. The three of them walked down the stairs; Mai and Naru flanked the child, each holding one of her hands. Mai heard Lin close and lock the door behind them before following them down the stairs. The sound of a phone taking a picture shattered the silence. Both Mai and Naru whipped around to eye Lin, who returned their stares blankly. His phone was nowhere in sight.

Mai shrugged it off because she had no idea why Lin of all people would take a picture of her, Naru, and Kimi. She figured it was probably one of the many tourists walking past the building and looking around the area in awe. Once at the bottom of the stairs, Naru gently pulled his arm away from Kimi's grip. The little girl didn't take offense and instead excitedly dragged the young woman into the lobby of the office.

"Mom, mom!" Kimi exclaimed, leading Mai to the sofas. "This is Onee-san!"

Mai bowed to the middle-aged woman sitting next to Madoka. Kimi's mother looked tired. Mai gestured for the older woman to remain seated when she moved to stand. "Please stay seated. I'm Taniyama Mai, an investigator for Shibuya Psychic Research. I'm pleased to meet you," the young woman greeted.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Maeda Ayame," Kimi's mom bowed in her seat. The older woman took Mai's hands into her own as she continued, "Thank you so much for what you did for Kimi. When she told me what happened, I didn't believe her, but I looked at the footage and couldn't deny that Kimi's story must have been true."

"What footage?" Naru questioned sharply.

"Please excuse my boss," Mai apologized for the rude young man. "His name is Shibuya Kazuya, the CEO of this company."

"Pleased to meet you, Shibuya-san. Thank you for accommodating us," Maeda-san greeted. "Concerning the footage, I often ask family friends or neighbors to watch Kimi when both my husband and I have to work late. I bought a couple of those nanny cam teddy bears, the stuffed animals that have a hidden camera, to put in Kimi's room and around the house to monitor the babysitters. Just in case, you know? I brought the recording from Kimi's room with me."

Madoka interjected, "I watched the video already. The visual is good at first, but there's no audio. The video clearly shows an entity starting to materialize in the corner of the ceiling and Mai's sudden appearance in the room, but the camera stopped working just after Mai began her chant. The visual returns once the spirit is gone. Mai is seen handing Kimi a business card and then disappearing just after fainting."

Naru turned to Mai and ordered, "Describe your experience. Start with what happened when you were pulled away from Gene and go through the whole ordeal in detail."

Mai thought for a moment, remembering more details than she'd been able to earlier, before answering, "Well, Gene and I were talking in the astral plane, and then it felt like I was yanked away from him. I appeared in Kimi's room, but I thought it was just a dream at first. It wasn't until I stepped on a Lego and felt pain that I realized I had astral projected. I noticed the spirit amassing in the corner of the ceiling so I started my chant, and something like a whip shot from the spirit and hit me in the ribs."

She brought her hand to cover the mark on her side then continued, "But I kept chanting then did the Nine Cuts, like usual, and the spirit disappeared. I felt you guys trying to bring me back to my body, but I resisted at first. Like Madoka said, I gave Kimi my business card and told her to tell her parents to come here. Then I felt that I was going to pass out, so I willed myself back to my body. That's all."

"Did the entity say anything or do anything unusual?" Lin asked, looking up from his laptop.

Kimi answered quietly, "He called us pretty girls."

"I could feel that it wanted to hurt us, like it was hungry for it or something," Mai recalled, though she felt that there was more that she couldn't quite recall.

"And did anything unusual occur during your incantation or Nine Cuts?" Madoka inquired.

Mai considered the question. It felt like she was forgetting something, as if there were a couple of details that evaded her. She stuttered, "I-I don't think so." A sharp pain started to grow in her head.

"You don't think so?" Naru pressed. "Do you not remember?"

"Not really," Mai answered, rubbing her temples to try to ease the pain. "Some things feel kind of fuzzy."

"Taniyama-san, are you alright?" Lin asked after noting her pained expression.

She nodded, "Just a headache."

Madoka stood from the couch and walked over to Mai. "Did you hit your head last night?"

Mai shook her head, "No, not that I remember."

"Kimi-chan," Madoka addressed the little girl. "Did you see Mai-chan hurt her head? Or did you see anything else about Mai that was weird, especially when she was getting rid of the spirit?"

Kimi looked at the floor, "I hid under the blanket most of the time because I was scared."

Mai wrapped an arm around her small shoulders, "That's okay, Kimi."

Naru sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Mai's instincts nudged her, whispering that she was missing something as she studied Naru, Lin, and Madoka.

"Why are you asking if anything out of the ordinary happened last night?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at the three of them.

Naru stiffened, and the older man and woman looked to the young boss. That only confirmed her hunch.

"What do you know that we don't?" Mai pushed.

Madoka looked between Lin and Naru, seeing that they wouldn't be of any help. She sighed and explained to Mai, "Kazuya, Lin, and I went to you once Gene informed him that something had happened to you in the astral plane. While we were trying to figure out what to do with you, your hands started to glow and the air felt charged with static electricity. It disappeared as suddenly as it appeared, but none of us know what to make of it."

Everyone was quiet for a moment while Mai tried to process what Madoka was saying.

"Um, excuse me, Shibuya-san. I don't… I don't understand everything that you guys are talking about. Truthfully, I'm still not completely certain that I believe in ghosts, despite what the video showed. Kimi's had more bumps and bruises lately, but my husband and I just thought she's been going through a clumsy phase. And sometimes, things aren't where I remember leaving them, but I've been pretty forgetful lately. I didn't think…"

Maeda-san paused and breathed shakily. She continued, "Madoka-san said that what happened last night means that there's a high chance that there's a malevolent ghost in my house. And in the video, I heard Taniyama-san say that it would definitely be back. Please, will you help us figure out what's going on? Will you please get rid of it? I can't… I can't stand the thought of my baby girl getting hurt."

Mai looked at her boss, begging with her eyes.

"If you would leave your contact information with Mai, we will call you back regarding our answer soon," Naru declared as he stood from his seat and entered his office. Lin and Madoka shared a look before following him and closing the door behind them.

Maeda-san sighed and moved to stand from the couch, but Mai begged, "Please just stay for a few more minutes. I'm going to try to figure out what's going on." The older woman nodded and sat back down with Kimi nestled into her side.

Mai narrowed her eyes at Naru's door then stood just outside of it, trying to eavesdrop on their conversation, but they were speaking too softly for her to hear. It didn't matter, though. Mai already knew that they were discussing whether or not to help the Maedas, considering the mess that Mai had already managed to entangle herself in before the case had even begun. Well, the three of them were wasting their time. There was no way in hell that Mai was going to let Naru pass up this case.

Mai barged into Naru's office and hissed, "If you think for a second that you can leave that poor woman and her child to the mercy of that… that… _thing_ in their home, you are sorely mistaken!"

"Taniyama-san, everything that has happened already indicates that you will likely be in great danger during this case," Lin explained calmly. "And without knowing whatever it is that you demonstrated last night-"

"I'll be fine," Mai argued.

"It's possible that the spirit made you astral project and use a dormant power that no one has discovered or researched yet," Madoka rationalized. "What if the entity specifically targets people with psychic powers? Most of the team could be at risk."

Mai contested, "When have we ever not been in danger during a major case?"

"Mai," Naru said sharply. "There is too much that we don't know. Without that knowledge, we will be ill-prepared to face whatever comes up."

The young woman took a deep breath to keep from raging. Mai asserted, her voice calm but hardened with steel, "I know your points are valid, but every possible argument that you could come up with is insignificant in a situation where someone, specifically a _child_ , is in danger. The spirit wants to _hurt_ Kimi-chan, and I won't just stand by and let it have her."

Mai took a deep breath and declared, "I've already decided to take the case. If I have to use my saved up vacation days to help the Maedas, I will." She looked directly at Naru, knowing that he still saw her as a clumsy, vulnerable, inexperienced investigator who didn't quite know what she was doing, but she had grown so much. "Make no mistake, Naru. I can solve this on my own. I can ask Masako to lend me equipment from her show, which Madoka taught me how to use and not just set up, or I can even rent it from a tech company if I have to. I know what to look for to rule out non-paranormal causes, and I know the best resources to use when researching the history of a building, a plot of land, or an object. I've also done countless exorcisms on my own. I don't need you, Naru, but I would like your support, as well as the rest of SPR's."

Madoka smiled at the young woman then turned expectantly to Lin and Naru. Mai continued to hold Naru's gaze, knowing that he was the one she had to convince. He looked evenly at her as if he were searching for any self-doubt, any indication that she wasn't as confident in her skills as she had portrayed, to which Mai only crooked one of her eyebrows. Naru nodded once, and she pumped her first, knowing that she'd won.

"You will remain with Bou-san, John, Lin, or myself at all times. You will sleep in the base, where it is safest. You will not run off on your own for whatever reason. If you have a dream or astral project, if you see the spirit, if you experience anything unusual at all, you will report it to me right away. You will listen to everything I say and obey every command I give you. Do you understand?" Naru ordered.

"Sir, yes, sir," Mai responded with a roll of her eyes and a big grin. "Thanks, Naru!"

He didn't respond, but that did nothing to dampen her spirits. "Kimi-chan, Maeda-san, guess what!" Mai cheered and returned to the lobby to tell them the good news.

* * *

 **Background info:**

 _ **Psychometry:**_ **One of Naru's powers is the ability to touch an object and experience a life event of the person that the object belongs/belonged to; this is important in the manga because it is suggested that Mai's first-person dreams are connected to Naru's psychometric visions, meaning that when Naru uses psychometry, Mai has a first-person dream of the same vision. This occurred only once in the novels and the manga, so it is unconfirmed, but this is something that I'm planning on playing with later on.**

 ** _Orphanage_ : In the novels and the manga, it is revealed that Gene and Naru were placed in an American orphanage and stayed there for some time before Martin and Luella adopted them.**

 **There's chapter 3! I hope you liked it and are sticking with me. If anything is confusing, if you have a theory about Mai's power, if you hated it, or if you loved it, and etc., please review! Thank you so much for reading!**


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